Valerie ran after Raphael, who walked toward a section of the palace that she never got a chance to visit. After a few minutes, she lost him in the maze of unfamiliar corridors."Prince Raphael?" she called for him when she realized that she lost her way along with him.But she didn't get a reply from him. She didn't find anyone around either. This part of the palace seems like it is rarely used and the guards and maids are absent. "Is anyone there?" she asked loudly, hoping that someone might tell her where Raphael went. But she only heard her own voice which echoed back to her. She understood that she might not find him. She looked around and tried to find the way she came from. But to her horror, all the corridors looked the same and she got confused. She roamed around aimlessly for a few minutes, but she came back to the same place again and again."What is this? This feels like a maze" she thought to herself."Prince Raphael?" she tried to call the prince following whom she ca
Raphael landed near the section of the forest where everything began. This is where he saw Valerie for the first time, and this is where someone stabbed his mother. The place which changed the course of three lives."Stay close to me" he instructed her, as there is a possibility that she can get lost."Ok" she replied obediently.Raphael began to search the surrounding area for something that might help him to find out the man who kidnapped Valerie. On the other hand, Valerie is looking around the familiar but at the same time not so familiar surroundings. Everything that happened that night flashed in her mind. How she ran away and how Irina found her, and how the queen tried to help her but got injured herself.Her palms shook when she remembered 'him '.She looked around and noticed something which she vaguely remembers seeing that night when she ran away. There is some kind of purple and white color flowers, which she remembers seeing that night. She followed the path of the flow
Raphael and Valerie are standing in a section of the forest that is darker than the rest of the area and it looked strange. It has taken them four hours to reach there, and Valerie is sure that the house is here somewhere."Are you sure this is the right direction?" he asked her. He is feeling a strange kind of pressure in his head. It began slowly when the forest began to turn darker. He is feeling like someone is trying to pry inside his mind and he is not allowing anyone to enter his mind. That is causing him a headache.Valerie looked around the forest, which is pitch black. If not for the torchlight she is holding, she wouldn't be able to see anything. "I am sure that house is here somewhere. But i don't remember coming across this kind of darkness. This section of the forest is strange and my skin is feeling weird and itchy" she said with a deep frown marring her features. When she mentioned that her skin is feeling itchy, he began to notice that her skin is turning red and sc
Raphael dropped Valerie back in the palace, right in front of her room. He left her with out a word. His lips still taste like hers, and he wanted to kiss again, and again. He is worried that he might end up doing just that. So he left her in the palace, and away from him. In this last one year, he never kissed her. Not even once. He wanted to punish her. This is the first time he learned that her lips are softer than the petals of a rose flower, and her taste is sweeter than honey and very addictive. "Damn, what have I done" he cursed himself. They did not speak anything after that kiss. He was trying hard not to kiss her again, while she looked like she was in a daze. Now, after one hour, he still wants to go back and finish what he started. 'What is wrong with me? I never found it so hard to control myself with a woman before. Then why is it feeling like an impossible task now?' he thought to himself. He is in his cave room. He couldn't stay in his room in the palace, as it i
By the time Raphael came to Valerie's room, it was empty. The guards outside her room are oblivious to the fact that she is missing. Whoever it is, they know everything about the hidden doors inside the palace. "Shit" he cursed and pressed the wall beside her wardrobe. His fingers touched a movable brick. He pushed the brick inside and slowly the wall began to slide aside, opening a narrow tunnel, which is dark and cobwebs can be seen everywhere. But his senses are stronger than everyone, so he can see the pathway without any light. 'Valerie, are you alright?' he asked her as he made his way inside the hidden door. But she didn't reply, which made him worried. He ran through the narrow tunnel as fast as he could, but he is forced to stop when the tunnel split into three directions. He doesn't which direction the intruder has taken Valerie. But every second he is wasting here might cost her life. So he is forced to decide faster. He observed the three tunnels and choose the rig
When she registered her surroundings, she sat up with a start. She remembered what had happened before she passed out. Before she could panic, she looked at Raphael with relief. "P..prince Raphael, he tried to take me into that tunnel. He was wearing a black mask and black clothes. He forced me to follow him by placing a knife at the base of my neck. I don't know what happened, but I began to feel dizzy before I entered that tunnel. I fainted and woke up here" she explained everything before he could ask her about what had happened. Raphael now recalled the single pair of footprints he saw in that room. She fainted and whoever came to kill her carried her here and left her to die. "Are you alright?" he asked her softly. Tentatively she touched her neck where her kidnapper made a nick. But surprisingly, she couldn't feel any wound or ruptured skin there. Only dry flakes of blood could be felt by her fingertips. "Strange" she murmured mostly to herself, which he heard. His gaze f
"For what?" he asked without looking at her.Valerie became sad, thinking that she is repulsing him."For dragging you into this. If not for me, then you wouldn't have been stuck here like this" she whispered while looking at her open palms.He is quiet for a moment."If i didn't bring you to the Raven palace, then you wouldn't have been in this situation, to begin with. I don't know why Cedric is doing all this when I clearly told him that you are innocent. But still, he is hell-bent on hurting you. I will deal with him after we figure out how to get out of here" he reasoned.She turned to look at him sadly. His earlier reaction is still fresh in her mind. She ran the scenario of never meeting Raphael or Irina in her life. She might have never known that he is a very good man. The thought of never crossing his path and lack of his intense attention over her made her feel strangely empty."If i never came here, then i would have missed the chance to meet the raven prince and her highn
"Prince Raphael, sunlight" Valerie pointed out. After what happened between them, an uncomfortable silence descended upon them. This is the first time she opened her mouth and spoke to him after an hour of silence. Valerie wants what he is giving her, and she is not looking for any kind of relationship either. But she doesn't know how to tell him that. She too feels the same kind of attraction toward him, as he feels for her. The thought of a man like him confessing about his feelings flattered her. Her stomach fluttered with butterflies. As they are still stuck in this room, slowly she began to feel uncomfortable as the oxygen supply began to deplete. Raphael is trying everything he can to get them out of there but to no avail. That's when she saw the sunlight. It is so faint and can easily go unnoticed in this dark room. But she saw it. "Sunlight? Where?" he asked her while looking around the small room. "There," she pointed near the high ceiling of the room. He followed her fin